B2B Demand Gen Budgets to Climb This Year; Focus Remains on Lead Quality

B2B marketers are working under strong revenue growth expectations, but should have greater budgets at their disposal this year than last, per results from a new Demand Gen Report study [pdf]. In fact, 7 in 10 B2B marketers surveyed expect their demand generation budgets to increase this year. That includes about one-third who predict an increase of more than 20%.

Those budgets will be put to use to satisfy rising expectations for marketing’s contribution to revenue. This year more than one-quarter (28%) of respondents report having specific revenue-based quotas, up 5% points year-over-year.

Moreover, among those tracking marketing’s contribution to revenue, half said it’s greater than 25%. Given that virtually all respondents say that their organizations are projecting revenue growth this year (almost two-thirds of more than 20%), that means that marketers will be tasked with contributing significantly to larger revenue expectations.

Against that backdrop, it makes sense that marketers aren’t focused simply on top-of-the-funnel metrics. While slightly more than 6 in 10 say that generating increased lead volume is a priority for them this year, that sits behind the greater priorities of focusing on lead quality over lead quantity (73%) and of improving conversion rates/campaign results (72%).

Few marketers are being measured primarily on their lead volume, with conversion and revenue metrics instead prioritized. Asked which of 6 primary metrics they are being measured on, respondents pointed largely to MQLs/SALs (33%) and pipeline influenced (30%). Fewer than half as many (14%) say that total leads/inquiries are their primary success metric.

See here for research about how enterprise B2B marketers are determining if their prospects qualify as MQLs or SQLs.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey conducted in December 2017 among 160 marketing executives, the vast majority of whom are from North America (87%). Roughly two-thirds come from companies with more than $10 million in revenues. The software/tech industry was the most heavily represented.

The report was sponsored by Content4Demand, Integrate, and Selling Simplified.